Iranian EFL Learners' Performance and Strategies across Different Reading Comprehension Question Types

Abstract

The study aimed to focuson 'higher-order' discourse-level processes which are operationalized into tendifferent question items and the variance in EFL learners' performance acrossthese question items in order to diagnose the problematic items and the readers'degree of awareness of strategies related to each question item. To this end, aTOEFL reading comprehension test with a suitable measure of readability indexfor intermediate level was administered to six groups of Iranian EFL learnersand teachers, comprising 219 subjects of mixed gender and proficiency level.The participants were asked to mark the correct options and write about therelevant reasons and strategies in Persian or English while answering the 16 multiplechoice (MC) questions. The results of Chi-square, coefficient of variability,and frequencies showed the item types that contribute to the significance ofvariance and low degree of awareness among EFL Iranian learners and teachers interms of cognitive and metacognitive test-taking strategies.